Coal has long been used as a source of fuel. As the search for alternative fuels increases, several inventors have been looking toward further developing technology related to the use of coal. These inventors have come to recognize that the natural gas found in coal is not limited to coal, but rather is found in various forms of man-made and naturally occurring substances including, but not limited to municipal solid waste, sewage, wood waste, biomass, paper, plastics, hazardous waste, tar, pitch, activated sludge, rubber tires, oil-based residue and coal. Coal is merely an ancient form of biomass and it appears all biomass forms have accessible natural gas therein.
The question has generally not been where one should look for natural gas, but rather how to liberate the natural gas. This has led to several different confined gasification liquefaction techniques. A variety of conveyance systems are used to move feedstock through the apparatus. The present system uses a blower as a mechanism to convey feedstock through a tube during processing.
Fluid dynamics provide that gases do not all move through a tube at the same speed. Friction adjacent the tube typically slows some gases. The friction causes a ripple effect where gases move faster the further away the gases are from the point of friction and slower the closer the gases are to the friction. Should the heating be provided from outside the tube, the same fluid dynamic problems may also exist.
Uneven heating is realized when one adds feedstock of a much cooler in temperature to the heated gases within the tube. The fast feedstock positioned within the fast moving gases have less time to reach reaction temperatures. Feedstock intermingled with the slow moving gases have much longer. This may lead to overheating the slow moving feedstock in an effort to allow sufficient time for processing the fast moving feedstock. Alternatively, the fast moving feedstock 98 is left relatively unprocessed.
Use of static mixers as interacting with the conveyance of the biomass within the gasification machine has generally not been discussed nor has the static mixing been fully considered. What is needed is a gasification machine using static mixing mechanisms, preferably including a static mixer both inside and outside the retort tube through which the feedstock 98 passes. Desirably, the static mixing mechanisms provide turbulence that aids in the processing of the biomass.